attests to the vibrant export market for such luxury items in Anto-
nine times. The decoration of all four sides of the marble box with
statuesque images of Greek gods and heroes in architectural frames
is distinctively Asiatic. The figures portrayed include Venus and the
legendary beauty Helen of Troy. The lid portrait, which carries on
the tradition of Etruscan sarcophagi (FIGS. 9-5and 9-15), is also a
feature of the most expensive Western Roman coffins. Here the de-
ceased, a woman, reclines on a kline (bed). With her are her faithful
little dog (only its forepaws remain at the left end of the lid) and Cu-
pid (at the right). The winged infant-god mournfully holds a down-
turned torch, a reference to the death of a woman whose beauty
rivaled that of his mother, Venus, and of Homer’s Helen.MUMMY PORTRAITSIn Egypt, burial had been practiced for
millennia. Even after the Kingdom of the Nile was reduced to a Roman
province in 30 BCE, Egyptians continued to bury their dead in mummycases (see “Mummification,” Chapter 3, page 57). In Roman times,
however, painted portraits on wood often replaced the traditional styl-
ized portrait masks (see “Iaia of Cyzicus and the Art of Encaustic Paint-
ing,” above). Hundreds of Roman mummy portraits have been pre-
served in the cemeteries of the Faiyum district. One of them (FIG.
10-62) depicts a priest of the Egyptian god Serapis, whose curly hair
and beard closely emulate Antoine fashion in Rome. Such portraits,
which mostly date to the second and third centuries CE, were probably
painted while the subjects were still alive. This one exhibits the painter’s
refined use of the brush and spatula, mastery of the depiction of varied
textures and of the play of light over the soft and delicately modeled
face, and sensitive portrayal of the deceased’s calm demeanor. Art his-
torians use the Faiyum mummies to trace the evolution of portrait
painting after Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 CE(compare FIG. 10-25).
The Western and Eastern Roman sarcophagi and the mummy
cases of Roman Egypt all served the same purpose, despite theirHigh Empire 275T
he names of very few Roman artists are known. Those that are
tend to be names of artists and architects who directed major
imperial building projects (Severus and Celer, Domus Aurea; Apol-
lodorus of Damascus, Forum of Trajan), worked on a gigantic scale
(Zenodorus, Colossus of Nero), or made precious objects for fa-
mous patrons (Dioscurides, gem cutter for Augustus).
An interesting exception to this rule is Iaia of Cyzicus. Pliny the
Elder reported the following about this renowned painter from Asia
Minor who worked in Italy during the Republic:
Iaia of Cyzicus, who remained a virgin all her life, painted at Rome
during the time when M. Varro [116–27 BCE; a renowned Republi-
can scholar and author] was a youth, both with a brush and with
a cestrum on ivory, specializing mainly in portraits of women; she
also painted a large panel in Naples representing an old woman and
a portrait of herself done with a mirror. Her hand was quicker than
that of any other painter, and her artistry was of such high quality
that she commanded much higher prices than the most celebrated
painters of the same period.*
The cestrum Pliny mentioned is a small spatula used in encaustic
painting, a technique of mixing colors with hot wax and then apply-
ing them to the surface. Pliny knew of encaustic paintings of consid-
erable antiquity, including those of Polygnotos of Thasos (see Chap-
ter 5, page 135). The best evidence for the technique, however, comes
from Roman Egypt, where mummies were routinely furnished with
portraits painted with encaustic on wooden panels (FIG. 10-62).
Artists applied encaustic to marble as well as to wood. According
to Pliny, when Praxiteles was asked which of his statues he preferred,
the fourth-century BCEGreek artist, perhaps the ancient world’s
greatest marble sculptor, replied: “Those that Nikias painted.”†
This anecdote underscores the importance of coloration in ancient
statuary.*Pliny the Elder,Natural History,35.147–148. Translated by J. J. Pollitt,The Art of
Rome, c. 753 B.C.–A.D. 337: Sources and Documents (New York: Cambridge Univer-
sity Press, 1983), 87.
†Pliny the Elder,Natural History,35.133.Iaia of Cyzicus and the Art
of Encaustic PaintingMATERIALS AND TECHNIQUES10-62Mummy portrait of a priest of Serapis, from Hawara (Faiyum),
Egypt, ca. 140–160 ce.Encaustic on wood, 1 43 – 4 83 – 4 . British
Museum, London.
In Roman times, the Egyptians continued to bury their dead in mummy
cases, but painted portraits replaced the traditional masks. This portrait
was painted in encaustic—colors mixed with hot wax.1 in.10-62AMummy
of Artemidorus,
ca. 100–120 CE.
10-62BMummy
portrait of a
young woman,
ca. 110–120 CE.